Sailor Wants To Change a Letter in PTSD?

My heart breaks for him but, changing the name will do no good. As for how veterans think about PTSD, that is where real change begins. Getting them to understand what it is and why they have it will do a lot more to remove the stigma than changing a couple of letters. We've been at this for over forty years because Vietnam veterans came home and fought for all the research, including the name itself. It means after trauma, which is Greek for wound, you go into stress and things get out of order. You can change again. PTSD is only caused by surviving a traumatic event.

San Diego sailor starts petition to get PTSD classified as injury
ABC 10 News
Hannah Mullins, Kevin Beckman
Jan 5, 2017

"We're here to honor him and those like him and those like him," he said. PTSD is a big culprit when it comes to veterans killing themselves.

SAN DIEGO — A local sailor, Will Gibson, is on a mission to battle veteran suicide by renaming Post Traumatic Stress Disorder to an injury.

It is something Will Gibson, who is a Navy sailor, knows too well. Gibson's old college buddy, Tony Briley, was injured in the Army and could no longer serve. Physical pain led to mental anguish.

"We lost Tony this year in August," he said, then he hung his head and cried. "It makes me sad that I couldn't do more to help him," Gibson said.

Briley became one of an estimated 20 vets a day who kill themselves. He left behind a wife and two girls. Gibson has since learned a lot about veteran suicide.
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